bortdafarm

cheers it will allow for a bit of fun to be had.. haven't done a heck of a lot to them i must admit..just the setting them up as unique aircraft so the original stock ones remain untouched and they can be added to missions and campaigns as seperate aircraft..i've added a squadron or two of each to the campaign even tho it is late war...because there may well have been some older types still flying for recon ballon defense..and it adds to the variety of planes flying.. all i did was the absolute bare minimum.. repaint set up as seperate flyable aircraft reduction in top speed and armament (no front gun on the DWFCI less ammo and shorter burst of fire for the rear gunner and half the ammo on the Albatros DI) availabilty dates set to early war.. that's it...you can add the paint job for them to the stock planes if you like them as well

cheers..yes it's kinda six of one and half a dozen of the other! be a nightmare plotting a railroad onto the map unless we placed on next to all the roads??? i keep wondering how the tree placement is worked out? they can't have done it tree by tree one at a time unless they plotted them onto the texture tiles...as the texture tiles appear at random angles so what would work on one location wouldn't work on another placement of the same tile...i wonder if the trees automatically appear along the dark green lines that surround the fields??? (seen this done in other sims- it recognises that exact colour as the location for trre placement...in the same way as the sim recognise some colurs as being the key to transparancy?? )...if so we could paint new lines across the filed of the same colour and create more tree lines... same here those city buildings are fairly ordinary...i'd like to replace them with the occasional lighter colored buildings you see in citys...) there are some sloped roof buildings in those great little villages dotted around the place...usualy by a road with a church...those are very nicely done..so far tho i haven't found any way to add or change the buildings around..tho i think Joker has (in his excellent new campaign) he placed some more tents etc on the airfileds....tho they need to be targets rather than just buildings?

i've knocked up a edited and repainted stock albatros DVa to represent the 1916 Albatros DI just up-loaded it here which was a contempory of the DH2..for a while) so it should automatically appear in missions created for 1916-17 (it's a seperate "aircraft" install so doesn't alter the DVa) flyable too great fun against the DH2..roughly equal performance..fun! it should do untill the "real thing" comes along

View File AlbatrosDI EDITED AND REPAINTED STOCK ALBATROS DVA TO REPRESENT AN EARLY WAR ALBATROS DI (FOR FIRST EAGLES) with reduced performance to match the period... for use with early war aircraft etc install to the objects/aircraft folder if for example you fly the DH2 and select 1916 as the year in the mission screen.. then only aircraft of that era will be loaded into the mission so this aircraft allows you to fly in the correct period and have some slightly more appropiate targets/enemys bortdafarm (is player flyable allso) Submitter bortdafarm Submitted 12/24/2006 Category Albatros

i think this is because the dfault start dates for the DH2 are 1916-17 where as most everything else in the game is set to appear in 1918...sounds like you can alter this by doing the edit USA' gave

Cheers USA!! i didn't know that thanks for the heads up...

View File DFWCI EDITED AND REPAINTED STOCK FIRST EAGLES DFWC V TO REPRESENT AN EARLY WAR TWO SEATER (DFWC I) with reduced performance to match the period... for use with early war aircraft etc install to the objects/aircraft folder if for example you fly a early war aircraft and select 1914-17 as the year in the mission screen.. then only aircraft of that era will be loaded into the mission so this aircraft allows you to fly in the correct period and have some slightly more appropiate targets/enemys bortdafarm (is player flyable allso) Submitter bortdafarm Submitted 12/24/2006 Category Other Central Powers Aircraft

View File FEalterrain SLIGHTLY MORE DETAILED AIRSTRIP plus THREE OTHER DETAILED FIELD TEXTURES FOR FIRST EAGLES breaks up the monotony of the landscape and add some interest to the ground textures install to terrain/ww1Verdun bortdafarm Submitter bortdafarm Submitted 12/24/2006 Category First Eagles - WWI and Early Years - Terrain and Environmental Mods

FElssounds View File A SET OF LOW RES SOUNDS FOR FIRST EAGLES THIS HELPS SMOOTH OUT THE JITTERS WHEN IN A LARGE DOGFIGHT WITH FLAK ETC GOING ON ALL ROUND (includes a low res version of FEprop) simply replace you stock Sounds folder with the one in this zip bortdafarm Submitter bortdafarm Submitted 12/24/2006 Category First Eagle - General Files - Sound Mods

you might be able to help the frame rates with an edit to the ini file in the aircraft's folder this is the albatros one LOD001 Filename=AlbatrosD5a.LOD Distance=100 LOD002 Filename=AlbatrosD5a_LOD2.lod Distance=250 LOD003 Filename=AlbatrosD5a_LOD3.lod Distance=500 LOD004 Filename=AlbatrosD5a_LOD4.lod Distance=1000 LOD005 Filename=AlbatrosD5a_LOD5.lod Distance=8000 (as long as he has included the LOD facility) so in theory you can set the lower detail model files to show much closer up try this LOD001 Filename=AlbatrosD5a.LOD Distance=50 LOD002 Filename=AlbatrosD5a_LOD2.lod Distance=100 LOD003 Filename=AlbatrosD5a_LOD3.lod Distance=300 LOD004 Filename=AlbatrosD5a_LOD4.lod Distance=600 LOD005 Filename=AlbatrosD5a_LOD5.lod Distance=4000 cme to think of it this would be a good way to help frame rates on all the models in the game if folks are having FPS difficultys...often in game you can't really notice the difference once your immersed gonna have a look at the dh now might be a idea to just fly it against two seaters...untill some one makes the Eindecker then we can do the Fokker scourge period! great cockpit for dogfighting....where's them eindeckers... yup he's only incorporated three levels of detail (LOD) LOD001 Filename=DH2.lod Distance=300 LOD002 Filename=DH2_LOD2.lod Distance=600 LOD003 Filename=DH2_LOD3.lod Distance=6000 so you might try lowering the distance the LOD's swop in...this way the lower detail version show at a closer range LOD001 Filename=DH2.lod Distance=100 LOD002 Filename=DH2_LOD2.lod Distance=200 LOD003 Filename=DH2_LOD3.lod Distance=3000 should help...it's a lovely model he he! i knocked up a repaint of the DFWCV to represent the early war DWFCI altered the performance and lowered the firepower acordingly so i could create mission set in 1916 and the game will automatically load the DFWCI (it's a seperate install so it didn't affect the stock DFWCV) as the only other aircraft in the mission (due to the availability date in the data inis) ugly ain't it but it'll do it's obviously going to be one of the major boons of this game that what ever year you set the mission at the game automatically only load those aircraft into the mission that were available at the time nice touch...

given enough trail and erroring you would think that an "ideal" set up would imerge from these alterations keep trying!!! i've had some remarkable twists and turns from the Se5a'a strangely tho all other types of aircraft remained the same (????) with just the aircratobject alterations on theri own..that had me foxed..as if all the other fighters had adopted the same tactics things would have been pretty fascinating to watch... not been able to recreate it since tho so that one might be lost in the mists of time as it were..sooner or later a better picture of how to go about his will start to come from all this...there is a tutorial in the knowledge base section that covers some of the entrys (and lots of other stuff) i think FE has some new entrys tho as these are not mentioned in the tutorial.. these ones RollForGunAttack=4.5 RollForGunAttackRate=-0.1 are unique to FE AFAIK (??) get these maxed out and things should get pretty lively! trouble is i'm never sure wether to increase them or decrease them (especailly the minus fiigure for the gunattack) but these entrys give the Ai the capability to flick roll in order to bring it's guns to bear...as they can't use their rudder (why is that??? never seen a sim that has the AI use-ing rudder control) this is the only way they have to fine tune their attack at the last second..looks good too... i'll try your settings see if my Albatros wingmen do a little betetr it's all fairly randomised so no sweat if it doesn't (has to average out over time) try the MaxRollForGunAttack=360 in the ace/novice etc setion allso notice that the DWFc two seater in the dwfc_data,ini actually has it's own seperate AIDATA section added stright into the aircraft_data ini so maybe unless this is just non functional...you can add aidata section to all the individual aircraft..i have used this idea but couldn't tellif there was any vast improvement

hi yup settings everything from gundata033 down in the gundat.ini to Accuracy=30.000000 seems to take the edge of the flak...(AIMODv1) has this edit included) i'm not clear exactly how the campaign sorts out the AI pilots status in the single missions they are specifically set via the mission entrys AircraftMission001 AircraftType=FokkerD7F Name=FokkerD7F FormationType=Fighter Size=1 RandomChance=100 MissionType=CAP ObjectiveID=2 Position=122200.0,132040.0,1000.0 Heading=180.0 Speed=50.0 Alignment=ENEMY Nation=GERMANY Texture=Jasta8 PilotTrainingStandard=EXCELLENT but the campaign doesn't give us acces to the individual mission files it generates (i'm assuming it does it this way tho i haven't seen any temporary mission files stored any-where for the campaign so i dunno how it creates each mission) but the skill level of the pilot seems to be controled via the experience setting in the wwicamp1_data.ini AirUnit001 AircraftType=Salmson2A Squadron=1AS ForceID=1 Nation=USAS DefaultTexture=USASCamo1 StartNumber=1 BaseArea=Touquin Aerodrome RandomChance=100 BaseMoveChance=10 MaxAircraft=10 StartAircraft=10 MaxPilots=16 StartPilots=16 Experience=70 //<<<===== this is the fella AFAIK Morale=100 but what happens when you set these all to 100 experience is that you get some dang fine stats fro the pilots on the roster screen BUT the campaign just seems to give the same stats to ALL the AI ,pilots enemy and friendly...so in effect your no better off.. i reckon your right that editing the aircraftobject.ini so that perhaps the veteran skill level has the same settings as the ace.....i have experimentd with this i must admit (it's all in AIMODv1) but although you get some changes in game and they can be quite good in some respects..there's no hardcore improvement tell you what tho flying the albatros with the stock flight model settings really does the trick it's the first time i have HAD to run away to survive with ammo left and relatively undamaged plane...i just couldn't out turn the enemy Spads...even two of them posed a serious threat to survival!! your squadron mates get knocked out the sky with out a moments pause tho...bit of a catch 22 on that issue.. i'm kinda stuck between getting the AI to be seriuos threat to the player (even one on one) flying the Alb proves that's likely to be possible...and trying to get the AI squadron mates to get some decent kill/survival ratios... heck it's summat to do!!!

no worries my fault really i guess ( i get a tadge over enthusiastic at times!)

experimenting a little with the ground textures and knocked up a few (just three but it's enough for the purpose) just to break up the monotony on the landscape a little (above image taken at low detail settings for terrain textures) just adds a little bit of variety...there's a redone airstrip included couldn't decide if i liked it but see if you do..? here's the same thing at the high texture detail setting and the airstrip here's a link to the file

well allright i did my level best to be completely honest and dang near wrote an essay on all the reasons why i could be wrong...if i knew what it was you wanted i'd try to provide it...(i thought i had?) i mentioned the camp_data test on the previous page ..there is nothing else to do...

not at all!! the issue is there is nothing to test!!! it's just a feeling..i haven't done anything with it ..it's just filed away for future reference....i am absolutely convinced that in some way the idea will have some relevance even if in a differnet context and with different files....it's just a feeling brought about byt the way the campaig engine takes entrys added or altered in one aircraft's data in and applies it in some cases to all the other aircraft and alterations to one suadrons experinece level in the camp_data ini is given to all the squadrons in spite of the fact that those other squadrons experinece remains as stock in the ini....so in fact there is a tendency for the game to actually extraopolate entrys in one file and add it on the fly to all the other possible units..under those circumstances it is un wise to stick ridigly to the view that what is written into an ini file is gospel..so it's a theory that might at some furture point shed some light on this effect... i as i say have not tried to do anything with it as yet....but if it is understood that thewwicamp1_data.ini should be placed into the campaigns/wwicamp1 folder then this is perhaps something you could test...if not then never mind but edit the experinece level of one of the player squadrons ..place the edited ini into the flight folder (same as it's parent cat) and start a campaign selecting the edited squadron ..the pilots experience stats will be altered on the roster board...this allso allows you to test the other aspect of the thing...start another campaign select one of the unedited squadrons..and you will see that this squadrons stats have allso been increased ....that's some thing that might help you see why i'm sure that ther is more to this stufff than meets the eye and conforms to the rules applied to placement and the games reading and implementation of the ini entrys... other than that which has no direct bearing on the "aircraft"data inis my issue is that the "that will never work" stuff just just that....not terribly use-full to any-one in athread meant for the throwing about of ideas and thoughts not making concrete testable statements ...i am well aware that that is not the normal tone expected on simulation forums (in my experience) and have been well and trul shouted down on many occasions for trying to have such free and easy modding discussion threads on other sim sites....even lost my job as moderator on one site in exactly the same circumstances...had folks coming in from far and wide to pass on their authoriative view that "that will never work" and each time it was over some idiotic small idea that just seemed to be throw away to me...not important at all...just a random thought...and the next thing i know folks are suddenly having to stop posting ideas because they are worried that if it's not testable and provable from the get go..some one will put their "i'm an expert" hat on and clomp about the place ...it doesn't matter that it is not testable it doesn't matter even if it is completely and utterly wrong...it's an idea...and ideas are what modding thread are all about....one idea no matter how wrong it may turn out to be allways and i do mean allways sparks another idea and that idea may well work....kill one idea you kill them all...modding is fun.....the game is fun.....why is it fun..how do you test that?? and the really strange thing is a good 50% of those "it'll never work" idea do actually in the end turn out to be relevant and use-full and there-fore do work... best i can do!!! it's allready happened here hasn't it...most of the posts are now relating to one idea that shouldn't have disturbed any-one for any reason.. and some how blam off we go...this thread is probably allready dead and just hasn't realised it yet!

i was wondering about that myself...only in reverse..there was in fact a version of the fokker d7 with three wings (a triplane) and i wondered if it was feasible to get the game to place a copy of the bottom wing at about cockpit height which would be just about passable for an AI aircraft...they would have been as rare as hens teeth (they were experimental i think) but one squadron of them might be nice..how often do we see SE5a' when not flying them...

i am just going to have to ignore you aren't I

yes on the armour i just did a perfunctory job on it for testing...plenty to mess about with!! me too..i usually go for the deflection shot in a turning fight..fire slightly ahead of him and let him fly into the bullets and hope the guns don't jam...wish we could teach the AI that one...ya can't miss..! as some one mentioned (can't remeber who sorry)one of the most challenging ways to play the campaign is to fly the albatros..i just downloaded the excellent cockpit here in the DL section (brilliant stuff) so i thought i'd suss how to enable the albatros...that and Jokers excellent new campaigns ..which let you fly the albatros from Jasta 60 etc....he he!! second patrol was a recon over a some destroyed buildings (very nice touch that Joker!!! some thing to recon!) we got bounced by i don't know how many spads....lost the squad..but all landed on friendly turf so the were ok and i imagine got lifts home as they were ok on the roster board (one wounded) at the start on the next mission..(i hope that's at least in part due to the armoured pilot and engine mod..???anyway ) i ended up trying to get a spad...managed one..but then another wing of them turned up (or the original one had left and come back again lol!).and it was no good at all can't out turn or out run the spad in the Alb'..can out climb it if you've got a head start but not on equal terms.. so i headed for home at tree top level (an old red baron trick lol) the AI is allways a little bit cautiuos about firing on you if your at tree top hieght....headed for some obs balloons (or in red baron valence..observation bal-----ooooons!) and they opened up with flak on the spads. three of them ...but they persisted so i just landed in a field and got a lift home like the rest of the squadron...damn sensible chaps... yep the Alb' is the way to go for decent dog-fights against the AI... if the AI keep surviving the way they have done (haven't lost a pilot yet and they have beeen out numbered two to one each time in some serious scraps) then things might be going in the right direction....

the funny thing about the damage model for the aircraft is the the fokkerd7f and Spad have a different system for modelling the engine damage than the others... the se5a, fokkerd7 and the albatros have a seperate NOSE section modelled which when destroyed takes the engine with it....the spad and D7 have the engine linked to the fueselage...which means in the very quickly made test version i had to add the armour to the fuselage section for these two...look in the se5a D7and albatros and you'l see that i was able to armour the engine as a unique and seperate unit..and gave it steel armour beacause it only affected the engine...nothing else is linked to the nose...but had to give wood armour to the d7f and spad because a whole lot of other systems are linked to the fueselage along with the engine so it had to toned down a little to compensate...i did make a quick attempt at shifting the engine out of the fuselage section and placing it else where but it resulted in a dead engine at mission start up..so decide for the sake of a test it was easier just to try the thing out with the entire fuselage given a basic wood armour there's probably a more sophisticated way to do it but i didn't have the time to go thru a full test of all the possible connentations especaily when it was just a test of a basic concept. you'll notice that the armour is not total HasArmor=TRUE ArmorMaterial=WOOD ArmorFRONT.Thickness=36 ArmorREAR.Thickness=36 ArmorLEFT.Thickness=36 ArmorRIGHT.Thickness=36 (brackets removed ) there is no armour assigned to the top or the bottom so a deflection shot from above or underneath should not meet with any greater resistance than stock same with the steel armour on the seperate nose section of the se5a D7 and albatros this IMO is avery interesting feature of the armour system that could be exploited to create some very dynamic and complex armour and damage set ups for the aircraft..meaning shots from different angle would do more damage than shots from other angles..which on a canvas covered ww1 plane might be used to model the fact that a heck of a lot of bullets will pass straight thru the canvas and do no more lethal damage than to rip small holes...the actual amount of structure in a ww1 wing is probably only 10 percent of the total area (i've built a few flying models of ww1 aircraft using traditional building techniques and it's pretty much just spars and wing ribs..with large areas of nothing imbetween the whole thing being held together and given it's structural strength and areodynamic capabilites by the heavily doped canvas covering ) so i can see that a very dynamic damage model could be worked up for them (as long as these entrys for the armour are working as implied by the entrys and are apllicable to the aircraft (rather than just the ground objects )